The Host

I'm of two minds about The Host, a 2006 monster movie from Korea. The monster's great--and the movie certainly loves showing it off. No coy reveal of the monster in dark alleys for this movie--you see the whole thing in broad daylight in the first 5 minutes. And the plot is at least slightly different than the usual "monster picking off a small group of people"-type.

But the dialog was totally terrible. I was watching the English-dubbed version and I'm entirely willing to believe that poor translation may have contributed to the awfulness, but even the gist of the dialog was often ridiculous. I think there might be some sort of layered "the effect of the west on our country has been for the worse" thing going on (you know, the way Godzilla is really about nuclear weapons) but it just didn't gel for me.

Comments

I saw the subtitled version of this movie and really liked it. BUT this is the second negative review I've read in response to the dubbed version. Let's all learn a lesson and not watch the dubbed version ever again people.

Yeah, man. I saw it in Korea with English subtitles, and I thought it was fantastic. The main complaints I've heard against the film was that it was anti-American. But the prologue about the American military medic dumping thousands of gallons of old formaldahyde into Seoul's water supply actually happened, and I think that some of the social commentary relating to that was pretty well-done. Plus, I thought the ending kind of subverted my expectations for a conventional "happy" ending to a horror/comedy film.

I don't not-like the Anti-American elements of the film, I just think they were pretty clunky. Like the American doctor who admits that there's no virus, but then has them drill into Park Gang-Du's head anyway. Is he just a dick? Is there some sort of benefit to the US to have the Koreans scared of a virus? I'd believe either, but it'd be nice to have some sort of indication of which it is--otherwise it just seems completely nonsensical. Unless *that's* the point.

You also have to admit, Dan, that your experience of the film is somewhat unique--you saw it in Korea after spending the day on the banks of the Han river, where most of the action takes place. The creepy factor has got to be dramatically increased in that situation.

I was under the impression that they were trying to silence him by lobotomizing him, or severely handicapping him. I think it also speaks to the "we're the U.S. and we know what we're doing, even though we're incompetent" angle. There's a lot of discontent in Seoul specifically for that reason. The U.S. military have jurisdiction over the South Korean military (through the U.N.), and a lot of stuff that goes on over there is unknown and murky to South Koreans that live there. It's just playing on that "What the hell do they do in there?" fear that many South Koreans have. Looking at it from a non-South Korean perspective, I'm guessing they were going for just a "shady government with unknown motives" as a plot device.

It was pretty creepy after going to the Han River, but I think that beach scene is pretty terrifying, even if I hadn't been there.

But since that takes a while to dig up, here's the text of the review:

The Host: The special effects, acting, and direction seemed pretty great. I cannot, however, recommend watching this movie. At least not the dubbed version that Netflix sent us by default. I couldn't tell if it was the translated script or the voice acting or the original script or what, but one of those things made no fucking sense. It's probably worth renting a subtitled version, but get ready for some laughable lines. Something was definitely uneven about it and I wish I knew what. It's one of the cooler CGI monsters I've seen, and the actors seemed decent, so it's a shame. One voice actor, playing a police officer, was so bad I thought it sounded like my friend Steve Gadlin making fun of a police officer. I had no idea the level of irony this movie was going for. I bet it's cool if you were just some Korean going to see it.

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